Old East Slavic literature, also known as Old Russian literature, is a collection of literary works of

Rus' Rus or RUS may refer to: People * East Slavic historical peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia ** Rus' people, the people of Rus' ** Rus, a legendary eponymous ancestor, see Lech, Czech and Rus * Rus (surname), a surname found in Ro ...

authors, which includes all the works of ancient Rus' theologians, historians, philosophers, translators, etc., and written in

Old East Slavic Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian) was a language (or a group of dialects) used by the East Slavs from the 7th or 8th century to the 13th or 14th century, until it diverged into the Russian language, Russian and Ruthenian language ...

. It is a general term that unites the common literary heritage of Belarus,

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

of the ancient period. In terms of genre construction, it has a number of differences from

medieval European In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

literature. The greatest influence on the literature of ancient Rus' was exerted by

old Polish The Old Polish language () was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language. The sources for the study of the Old Polish language are the data of the co ...

and old Serbian literature. Most of the monuments of Old East Slavic literature have been preserved in the form of

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...

. The most common type of manuscript was literary collections. Notebooks written by a single scribe could then be bound by the scribe or binder himself. Such collections can be of a certain ("Zlatostruy", " Izmaragd", "Solemn", etc.) or indefinite content, reflecting the individual tastes and interests of one or another scribe who selected materials for himself or for his customer. Unlike other traditionalist literatures, the Old East Slavic literature is characterized by

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...

, lack of clearly expressed poetological reflection, conscious rejection of

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...

and specification of theoretical knowledge. It differs from

Byzantine literature Byzantine literature is the Greek literature of the Middle Ages, whether written in the Byzantine Empire or outside its borders. It was marked by a linguistic diglossy; two distinct forms of Byzantine Greek were used, a scholarly dialect based ...

by its emphasized irregularity, the blurring of genres and boundaries between the prosaic and the poetic, and the lack of a clear conceptual apparatus. Voluminous works could be copied and intertwined into separate books: some letopises, works on world history, paterics, works of a liturgical nature, prologues, etc. Small compositions, for example, "

Praying of Daniel the Immured The Prayer of Daniil Zatochnik, also translated as The Supplication of Daniel the Exile or Praying of Daniel the Immured (; ), is an Old East Slavic text created by the Pereyaslavl-born writer Daniil Zatochnik during the 13th century (estimated ...

" or the '' Tale of the Destruction of the Rus' Land'' did not make up separate books, but were distributed in collections.

Origins

Pre-Christian period

The early examples of pre-Christian Old East Slavic Rus' literature should primarily include the oral epic:

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

myths Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

and

fairy tales A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the Folklore, folklore genre. Such stories typically feature Magic (supernatural), magic, Incantation, e ...

. Most of the Old East Slavic oral

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

was recorded only in the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the oral works, stories about the meeting of a person with an otherworldly force were particularly distinguished. Such a story by genre was divided into a ''

bailichka (; in ) is a type of story in Russian folklore about an allegedly true event involving a meeting with spirits. In contrast to the ''byvalschina (in ) is a short oral story in Russian folklore about a supernatural incident: a case that took pla ...

'', where a meeting with evil spirits is told on behalf of an "eyewitness", and a ''

byvalschina (in ) is a short oral story in Russian folklore about a supernatural incident: a case that took place in reality, without focusing on the personal testimony of the narrator (in contrast to the , where the story is recounted on behalf of the "eye ...

'', an oral story about a case that allegedly took place in reality, without focusing on the personal testimony of the narrator. and ''byvalschina'' were often told in the villages to friends or children in order to wean them to walk far from home, and, according to Yevgeny Meletinsky, they became the prototype of "scary fairy tales". Later, a special type of

druzhina A druzhina is the Slavonic word for a retinue in service of a chieftain, also called a ''knyaz'' (prince). Kievan Rus' ''Druzhina'' was flexible both as a term and as an institution. At its core, it referred to the prince's permanent perso ...

poetry began to take shape –

bylina A (, ; ), also popularly known as a ''starina'' (), is a type of Russian oral epic poem. deal with all periods of Russian history. narratives are loosely based on historical fact, but greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole. or ...

, Rus' epic poems about heroic or mythological events or remarkable episodes of national history. In some ways, bylina are similar to

skaldic poetry A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

: both are divided into songs of praise and blasphemy and glorify some historical event. Bylina, as a rule, are written in tonic verse with two or four accents.

Early period: translated Apocrypha

Almost all the literature of Rus' – original and translated – was handwritten. Handwritten works were distributed by copying by scribes or ordinary people. In Rus', the apocrypha about the

Last Judgment The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the '' Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, res ...

was especially popular. Among such works, a special place was occupied by the life of

Basil the Younger Saint Basil the Younger (died 26 March 944/952) was a Byzantine Greek holy man and visionary. He is the subject of a Greek hagiographical biography, the ''Vita sancti Basilii iunioris'', written by his pupil Gregory. Although the ''Vita'' portray ...

, the second part of which (scenes from the vision of Vasily Gregory's pupil about the Last Judgment and a lengthy story about Theodore) spread as independent works. Later, the original Old East Slavic apocrypha began to be created, the most famous of which is "The Walking of the Virgin through the Torments". Its plot is similar to the Greek "Revelation of the Most Holy Theotokos", but it also has many original features: for example, pagans who worship ,

Veles Veles may refer to: *Veles (god), a Slavic god *Veles Municipality, in North Macedonia *Veles, North Macedonia, a city, seat of the municipality, formerly called Titov Veles *Veles Bastion, Stribog Mountains on Brabant Island, Antarctica *Veles, s ...

and

Perun In Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, Perun () is the highest god of the Pantheon (religion), pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, ir ...

are in the first circle of hell, and there are a number of anti-Semitic statements in the text itself. According to the philosopher

Sergei Bulgakov Sergei Nikolayevich Bulgakov (, ; – 13 July 1944) was a Russian Orthodox theologian, priest, philosopher, and economist. Orthodox writer and scholar David Bentley Hart has said that Bulgakov was "the greatest systematic theologian of the tw ...

, the special popularity of apocryphal literature in Rus' is indicated by the fact that of the seven most important monuments of the Jewish apocalyptic (except for the books of the prophet Daniel), three were preserved exclusively in Old Slavonic translations.

Early original compositions

Presumably, both epics and folk tales were not recorded by contemporaries for the reason that Rus' inherited from the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

a ban on

literary fiction Literary fiction, serious fiction, high literature, or artistic literature, and sometimes just literature, encompasses fiction books and writings that are more character-driven rather than plot-driven, that examine the human condition, or that are ...

and the presence of a purely artistic function in the works. Back in 1073, the compilers of the ''Izbornik Svyatoslav'' warned against worldly writings based on artistic imagination.

Fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

developed only in the late period. However, despite some limitations, scientific and artistic works had to answer questions related to natural history (the origin of the world,

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

) and the development of human society (the settlement of peoples, the origin of power, the state, the meaning and purpose of human history). The first original works in Kievan Rus' were instructive collections, which are the most common type of manuscripts (even after the beginning of printing in Russia in 1569, manuscripts have not lost their popularity). The

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

copied various works according to some attribute or genre in a notebook. Notebooks written by one scribe could then be bound by the scribe himself or the bookbinder into a separate book. The bookbinder could collect notebooks of different times and different scribes and connect them because they were of the same format or were combined by them according to content. Such collections are currently called convolutes. Such collections of teachings as Izmaragd, Golden Chain, Bee, Solemn, Zlatostruy (origins), Pchela (of Byzantine origin) were originally intended for home and

monastic cell A cell is a small room used by a hermit, monk, nun or anchorite to live and as a devotional space. Cells are often part of larger cenobitic monastic communities such as Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Orthodox Christian monasteries, as well ...

reading. Included in these is the Palea, a collection of several interconnected ancient Rus' works that set out Old Testament history, with additions from

apocrypha Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

l monuments, as well as with theological reasoning. Already in the early period of the development of Rus' literature, one can trace the understanding of Rus' not only as an ethno-political and religious community, but also as the Kingdom of Christ. In the

Sermon on Law and Grace The ''Sermon on Law and Grace'' () is a sermon written by Hilarion, the metropolitan of Kiev. It is one of the earliest Slavonic texts available, having been written several decades before the '' Primary Chronicle''. Since Hilarion was conside ...

of the middle of the 11th century (the future Metropolitan,

Hilarion of Kiev Hilarion or Ilarion was the first non-Greek Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus'. He held the metropolitan post before or during the ongoing 11th century East–West Schism. While there is not much verifiable information regarding Hilarion's biograp ...

), the newly baptized Rus' people are called new. The perception of the people who were baptized in the "last times" (before the

) as new, endowed with special grace, was characteristic of Rus'. The widespread idea of an imminent dreadful judgment was strongly reflected in the Old East Slavic literature of that period; ascetic creations and instructive literature became an introduction to

soteriology Soteriology (; ' "salvation" from wikt:σωτήρ, σωτήρ ' "savior, preserver" and wikt:λόγος, λόγος ' "study" or "word") is the study of Doctrine, religious doctrines of salvation. Salvation theory occupies a place of special sign ...

(the doctrine of the salvation of the soul).

Genres

As most modern researchers note, there is no clear division of literature into genres in ancient Rus'. There were only a few authors who clearly defined the genre of their works (among such were the monk Phoma,

Nil Sorsky Nilus of Sora (also Nil Sorsky or Nil Sorski; ; secular name: Nikolai Maikov; ; – 7 May 1508) was a Russian Orthodox monk, spiritual writer, theologian, and the founder of the Sora Hermitage. He is best known as the founder of a tendency in t ...

Metropolitan Macarius Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

, and the nameless author of "The Tale of Mikhail Tverskoy"). Thus, the

lexeme A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms ta ...

''Word'' (, also translatable as ''Tale'', ''Lay'' or ''Discourse'') often perceived as the name of a genre, could mean a didactic teaching, a chapter of a book, a conversation, a speech, articles of various content, etc. Likhachev, Dmitry (1979). . 'The Poetics of Early Russian Literature'' pp. 58–61, 89. 3rd ed. Moscow. Nevertheless, Nikita Tolstoy made an attempt to classify ancient Rus' literature; later, the classification was edited by Evgeny Vereshchagin (the latter version is somewhat different from Tolstoy's): * ''scriptural monuments'': the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

(Holy Scripture) and

biblical apocrypha The Biblical apocrypha () denotes the collection of ancient books, some of which are believed by some to be of doubtful origin, thought to have been written some time between 200 BC and 100 AD. The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Ori ...

, see

Bible translations into Church Slavonic The oldest translation of the Bible into a Slavic language, Old Church Slavonic, has close connections with the activity of the two apostles to the Slavs, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Cyril and Methodius, in Great Moravia in 864–865. The oldest ...

* ''liturgical/euchographic'':

liturgical books A liturgical book, or service book, is a book published by the authority of a church body that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services. Christianity Roman Rite In the Roman Rite of the Catholic C ...

and hymnographic monuments * ''doctrinal'': symbols, statements of faith, catechumens, polemical and ethical instructive teachings, interpretations * ''preaching'': oratory prose and

gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

literature * ''hagiographic'':

lives of saints A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

, laudatory words to saints, tales of acquisitions, transfer of relics and icons, miracles * ''canonical and legal'': statutes, Kormchaia Books, law books (

Kievan Rus' law Kievan Rus' law or law of Kievan Rus, also known as old Russian lawKaiser, Daniel HThe Growth of the Law in Medieval Russia. – Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014 980 p. 26, 218. or early Russian law, was a legal system in Kievan Rus' ...

), contractual, spiritual, deeds, etc. letters * ''memorial'': letopises (including

Rus' chronicle The Rus' chronicles, Russian chronicles or Rus' letopis () was the primary Rus' historical literature. Chronicles were composed from the 11th to the 18th centuries, generally written in Old East Slavic (and, later, Ruthenian language, Ruthenian ...

s and Lithuanian–Belarusian chronicles),

chronographs A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has hour and minute hands on the main dial to tell the time, a small seconds hand to tell that the watch is running, and ...

, descriptions of historical events, pilgrimages, travels * ''scientific'': encyclopedic collections * ''household'': private correspondence, inscriptions,

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

. This classification does not distinguish between primary genres (for example, hagiographies) and unifying genres that include small works as source material (prologue, menaiat-chets, etc.). This difference is taken into account in the classification based on the systematics of

Dmitry Likhachev Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev (, also spelled ''Dmitrii Likhachev'' or ''Dmitry Likhachov''; – 30 September 1999) was a Russian medievalist, linguist, and a former inmate of Gulag. During his lifetime, Likhachev was considered the world's fore ...

, who distinguished between monumental and small genre forms. Nikolai Prokofiev gave the following classification: * ''complex forms'': letopises,

, hagiographic collections, letters, etc. * ''primary genres'': ** ''epic genres'' *** ''historical genres'':

lives of the saints A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

, military tale,

and walking *** ''allegorical'':

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whe ...

s *** ''symbolic'': miracle, vision, sign, divinatory literature ** ''lyrical genres'': teaching, message, crying. The most important feature of epic genres is the object of the image and lyrical purpose.

Mathematics and cosmology

Mathematical-Easter essays

In the early period after the

Christianization of Kievan Rus' The Christianization of Kievan Rus' was a long and complicated process that took place in several stages. In 867, Patriarch Photius of Constantinople told other Christian patriarchs that the Rus' people were converting enthusiastically, but his ...

, there was no special church calendar, and the Old Slavic calendar was not suitable for calculating church holidays. Therefore, many authors had to make their own calculations in their works, which ranked their works among not only Paschal, but also mathematical treatises. For complex calculations, ''schoty'' was often used. The earliest mathematical work of Kievan Rus' is considered to be "the doctrine of numbers" by

Kirik the Novgorodian Kirik the Novgorodian (; 1110 – after 1158) was a monk of the Antoniev Monastery and later a hieromonk in the entourage of Archbishop Niphont of Novgorod (r. 1130–1156) famous for writing the first mathematical treatise in Eastern Slavdom, th ...

, a treatise on the calculus of time, combining an essay on

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

chronology Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...

and Paschalistics. However, later mathematical treatises did not receive a proper development in Kievan Rus'. Among the works equal to the "doctrine of numbers", scientists include the "Charter of military Affairs" created in the 15th and 16th centuries, which set out the tasks of

triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle m ...

on the ground, and the "Book of soshny writing", dedicated to

land surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...

. Later works include an extensive manuscript entitled "Synodal No. 42", the first textbook in Rus' on theoretical

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

Cosmology works

The early cosmological works of Kievan Rus' were partially influenced by apocryphal writings, mixed with pre-Christian ideas about the structure of the world. Thus, much attention is paid to the creation and structure of the world in two of the most significant early works: the

Dove Book ''The Verse About the Book of the Dove'' or ''Dove Book'' () is a medieval . At least 20 versions are known. They vary in length from 30 to over 900 lines. The poem is generally thought to have been written in the Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod regi ...

and " About the whole creation". Both works have a complex structure and are probably based on Old East Slavic apocryphal legends that existed for the early period after the

. It is also interesting that in the "Depth Book", as in two other ancient Rus' monuments – "The Conversation of the Three Saints" and "The Conversation of Jerusalem" – for some reason,

whales Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

are endowed with supernatural power. In the "Conversation of the Three Saints", the Earth floats on top of the great sea on three large whales and 30 small whales; the latter cover 30 sea windows; "The Conversation of Jerusalem" and "Depth Book" connect the movement of the whale with the end of the world. According to the "Depth Book" — "The Whale-fish is the mother of all fish. On the Whale-fish the earth is founded; when the Whale-fish turns, then our white light is finished (the end of all things will come)". The so-called "

fortune-telling Fortune telling is the spiritual practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115–116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle ...

books" (also "divinatory books") can probably also be attributed to cosmological works, which are currently not officially assigned to any of the genres of Kievan Rus'. Fortune-telling books (''

Volkhovnik The ''Volkhovnik'' (; ) was an Old Russian book of divinatory nature which included collections of signs and their interpretations. It appears in Russian lists of banned books dating from the 15th century onward. It is likely that the entry for t ...

'', ''Gromnik'', ''Kolyadnik'', ''Trepetnik'', ''Enchanter'', etc.) were mainly distributed secretly: they were copied, sewn into other books, and passed on by inheritance. Officially, the distribution of such literature was persecuted by the church; lists of forbidden (so-called renounced) books of Kievan Rus' were compiled, in which divinatory literature was equated with

Theological literature

Very popular in ancient Rus' were the lives of saints ( ''zhytie''), a kind of genre of

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

that describes the life, deeds and miracles of ancient Rus' saints, martyrs and miracle workers.

Poetics

The scientist Alexander Panchenko refers to the earliest forms of Old East Slavic versification as the so-called "penitential poems" (the metrical nature of which is not yet clear), single poetic texts written by the monk of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery Efrosin, as well as separate chapters ''

The Tale of Igor's Campaign ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' or ''The Tale of Ihor's Campaign'' () is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'' ...

'' and the '' Tale of the Destruction of the Rus' Land'' containing a metric constant. Despite this, versification in Kievan Rus' was most often not approved, because was considered inherent only in "

Latins The term Latins has been used throughout history to refer to various peoples, ethnicities and religious groups using Latin or the Latin-derived Romance languages, as part of the legacy of the Roman Empire. In the Ancient World, it referred to th ...

". This position was most consistently expressed by Archpriest

Avvakum Avvakum Petrov (; 20 November 1620/1621 – 14 April 1682; also spelled Awakum) was a Russian Old Believer and protopope of the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square who led the opposition to Patriarch Nikon's reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church. H ...

: “Do not look for rhetoric and philosophy, or eloquence, but live with a sound true verb. Therefore, а rhetorician and philosopher cannot be a Christian. Alexander Panchenko pointed out that the Old East Slavic church poetry was strongly influenced by West Slavic, especially

Polish literature Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Latin, ...

. Simeon Polotsky, releasing his "Rhymed Psalter" (1680), wrote that in Moscow they loved "the consonant singing of the Polish Psalter".

Syllabic verse

Some of the earliest representatives of Old East Slavic syllabic poetry are such poets as

Karion Istomin Karion Istomin (; late 1640s – 26 May 1717) was a Russian poet, translator, and one of the first Russian enlighteners. He was a student of Sylvester Medvedev. Life Karion Istomin was born in Kursk. He was a celibate priest and then a hegumen a ...

Simeon of Polotsk Symeon (Simeon) of Polotsk or Symeon Polotsky (; born as ''Samuel Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz'', ; December 12, 1629 – August 25, 1680) was an academically-trained Baroque poet, dramatist, churchman, and enlightener of Belarusian descent who came fr ...

Theophan Prokopovich Theophan or Feofan Prokopovich (; ; ) was a Russian Orthodox bishop, theologian, pietist, writer, poet, mathematician, astronomer, pedagogue and philosopher of Ukrainian origin. He was the rector of the Academia Mohileana in Kiev (1711–1716), ...

Antiochus Kantemir Antiochus or Antioch Kantemir or Cantemir (; ; ; ; 8 September 1708 – 31 March 1744) was a Moldavian who served as a man of letters, diplomat, and prince during the Russian Enlightenment. He has been called "the father of Russian poetry". ...

Sylvester Medvedev Sylvester (; secular name: Simeon Agafonovich Medvedev; 6 February 1641 – 21 February 1691) was a Russian writer, poet, and theologian. He was a student of Simeon of Polotsk. Life Sylvester was born in Kursk; he was first a ''podyachy'' in Kur ...

and . The principle of syllabic symmetry was dominant. A twelve-syllable verse with a

caesura 300px, An example of a caesura in modern western music notation A caesura (, . caesuras or caesurae; Latin for "cutting"), also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase beg ...

after the fifth or sixth syllable was used; there are, for example, such complex schemes as: 5-6-8, 8-6-5, 7-7-4-5-3-5 (12 verses of Irmos ""...) or 8, 5-5-5, 8-8, 5-5-5 (9 verses of Irmos ""...) There were also schemes where the number of syllables in each verse was a multiple of three (from St. Trinity, the sacred number "three" for Christians). The detailed life in the monastery can be judged by the syllabic poem by Karion Istomin "About speaking from people, how monks live in the monastery":

Acrostics

The acrostic form became very popular in Ancient Rus' poetics. It was also widely developed there. The earliest work in the genre of acrostic in ancient Russia is considered to be the , translated from Old Bulgarian. The acrostic in the Old East Slavic book poetry was also known in later times. Thus, the acrostic is found in one of the "greetings" of Karion Istomin to Tsarevich Alexey Petrovich: Here the acrostic is "Alexy Tsarevich live forever" (; in the fourth verse in the original, the first letter is the Slavic "xi").

Kievan Rus' law, documentation

In Kievan Rus', there were a number of canonical and legal statutes and rights. The special charters, judicial books, contractual, spiritual certificates and contribution certificates were common for the people and for the church. Most collections of Kievan Rus' law are strictly divided into civil and ecclesiastical. The exception is the

Merilo Pravednoye The ''Merilo Pravednoye'' or ''Just Measure'' (; , ) is a Russian collection of writings from the late 13th or early 14th century, preserved in the copies of the 14th to the 16th centuries. The name was given in modern literature, taken from t ...

, which is both a collection of church-canonical and civil legal legal nature.

Temporal law

The legal basis of the Kievan Rus' state was the

Russkaya Pravda The ''Russkaya Pravda'' (sometimes translated as ''Rus' Justice'', ''Rus' Truth'', or ''Russian Justice'') was the legal code of Kievan Rus' and its principalities during the period of feudal fragmentation. It was written at the beginning of th ...

, Lithuanian statutes and Moscow Sidebniks. In 1649, the

Sobornoye Ulozheniye The ''Sobornoye Ulozheniye'' (, ) was a legal code promulgated in 1649 by the Zemsky Sobor under Alexis of Russia as a replacement for the Sudebnik of 1550 introduced by Ivan IV of Russia. The code survived well into the 19th century (up to 1832 ...

was added to these written laws. The so-called ''

'' ("Rus' Justice") is of great importance for the study of

. The ''Russkaya Pravda'' is a collection of legal norms of Rus', dated from various years, starting from 1016, the oldest Rus' legal code. The ''Russkaya Pravda'' contains the norms of

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

compulsory Compulsion, Compulsive, Compelling, or Compulsory may refer to: Psychology * Compulsive behavior, a psychological condition in which a person does a behavior compulsively, having an overwhelming feeling that they must do so. * Obsessive–compu ...

hereditary Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

and

procedural law Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil procedure, civil, lawsuit, criminal procedure, criminal or admini ...

. It is the main source for studying the legal, social and economic relations of Kievan Rus'. The ''Russkaya Pravda'' is similar to earlier European legal collections, such as

Germanic law Germanic law is a scholarly term used to describe a series of commonalities between the various law codes (the ''Leges Barbarorum'', 'laws of the barbarians', also called Leges) of the early Germanic peoples. These were compared with statements i ...

(the so-called ''Leges Barbarorum'', "laws of the barbarians"), for example, the

Salic law The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish Civil law (legal system), civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis I, Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is deba ...

, a collection of legislative acts of the Frankish state, the oldest text of which dates back to the beginning of the 6th century. The short version consists of the following parts: * The Oldest Pravda or the truth of Yaroslav (Articles 1-18), 1016, is usually associated with the activities of Yaroslav the Wise; * The Pravda of the Yaroslavichs (

Izyaslav Iziaslav or Izyaslav (, ), also known as Zaslav (, ; , ), is one of the oldest cities in Volhynia. Situated on the Horyn River in western Ukraine, the city dates back to the 11th century. Iziaslav belongs to Shepetivka Raion of Khmelnytskyi Oblast ...

Vsevolod Vsevolod or Wsewolod ( ; ) is a Slavic male first name. Its etymology is from Slavic roots 'vse' (all) and 'volodeti' (to rule) and means 'lord-of-everything/everybody', (similar to another princely name, "Vladimir" or "Volodymyr"). It is equiva ...

and Svyatoslav, sons of Yaroslav the Wise, who were part of the Yaroslavich triumvirate) (articles 19–41), the youngest of the three princes Vsevolod is named before the middle Svyatoslav), does not have an exact date, often refers to 1072; * Pokon virny (Article 42) – determination of the order of "feeding" of virniks (princely servants, collectors of vir-court fines), 1020s or 1030s; * Urok to mostniks (Article 43) – regulation of the remuneration of bridge builders, or, according to some versions, bridge builders, 1020s or 1030s. As many researchers have noted, the most ancient part of the ''

'' (the oldest pravda) preserves the custom of

blood feud A feud , also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially family, families or clans. Feuds begin ...

, characteristic of the laws of pre-Christian Kievan Rus', although it limits it to the circle of closest relatives. The lengthy version includes about 121 articles and consists of two parts-the Charter of Yaroslav Vladimirovich and the Charter of Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh. According to most researchers, the Lengthy Truth is based on the Short text, which was amended and supplemented, including those adopted during the

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

reign of

Vladimir II Monomakh Vladimir II Monomakh (; Christian name: ''Vasily''; 26 May 1053 – 19 May 1125) was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1113 to 1125. He is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is celebrated on May 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics), May 6 ...

Ecclesiastical law

With the

, church law arose. The most important source of church law in Kievan Rus' was the ''sudebniki'', the most famous of which is the

Zakon Sudnyi Liudem The Zakón Súdnyi Liúdem ("Law for Judging the People" or "Court Law for the People") is the oldest preserved Slavs, Slavic legal text. Its source was Byzantine law and it was written in Old Church Slavonic in the late ninth or early tenth cent ...

(the South Slavic legal Code of the 9th and 10th centuries, although some scholars consider it a reworking of some Byzantine and

Jewish laws ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments (''mitzv ...

). However, most often in the ecclesiastical sphere of Kievan Rus', they used '' kormchaia'' books, legal collections that contained both church rules and the decisions of the Roman and Byzantine emperors on the church. From the translated Byzantine collections of ecclesiastical law in Kievan Rus',

nomocanon A nomocanon (, ; from the Greek 'law' and 'a rule') is a collection of ecclesiastical law, consisting of the elements from both the civil law and the canon law. Nomocanons form part of the canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches (through th ...

s, ', ', and Zanon books (translation of Byzantine laws) were used. However, despite the widespread existence in the written tradition, Byzantine law did not have a significant application in legal practice, and its full reception did not occur. Rus' ecclesiastical law was based primarily on the ecclesiastical statutes issued by the knyazes, based on local law and only limited borrowing of Byzantine law. Later, in 1551, the comprehensive religious collection

Stoglav The ''Book of One Hundred Chapters'', also called ''Stoglav'' (''Стоглав'') in Russian ("Hundred chapters"), is a collection of decisions of the Russian church council of 1551 that regulated the canon law and ecclesiastical life in the Tsa ...

was created, combining the norms of

judicial The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

and

ecclesiastical law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

. Stoglav tried to solve the following pressing issues: * strengthening of church discipline among the clergy and the fight against the vicious behavior of representatives of the church (drunkenness, debauchery, bribery), usury of

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

, * unification of church rites and services, * powers of the ecclesiastical court, * combating the remnants of paganism among the population, * strict regulation (and, in essence, the introduction of a kind of spiritual

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

) of the order of correspondence of church books, the writing of

icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, saints, and angels. Although especially ...

, the construction of

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

buildings, etc. "Books of law" and "

", one of the first Kievan Rus' collections of a

civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

and ecclesiastical-legal nature, contain both excerpts from Byzantine legislation and identical articles of Rus' origin, probably included in collections from an older one that did not come down to us of the collection of Kievan Rus' law.Publication notes

Notes

References

Works cited

* Likhachev, Dmitry S. ed. (1987–1989). 'Dictionary of scribes and books of Ancient Russia'' Volumes 1–3. Academy of Sciences of the USSR; Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Leningrad: Nauka. ** ** * * * *